Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Does anyone have experience with an AB block?

It's another year and we will do another experiment. I am looking to talk with someone about how you teach to an AB block.
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4 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...

what is an AB block?

June 25, 2013 at 5:12 PM
SMiller said...

We are on an AB block schedule: periods 1-4 on A day and periods 5-8 on B day. A and B days alternate, so one week would be ABABA, followed by BABAB. Our classes are about 90 minutes long.

Is that what you mean?

June 25, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Ricochet said...

Smiller - sort of. We will do all seven periods one day a week - and then it changes. First period every day. Even periods on Tuesday and Thursday. Odd periods (except 1st - which is every day) on Wednesday and Friday.

So - do the kids have trouble remembering where to go and what you last discussed?

(Oh, and there is a mishmosh of period lengths. I count 5 different lengths when I look at the schedule.)

June 26, 2013 at 6:25 AM
SMiller said...

It sounds a bit confusing to me, but I'm sure you and they will get used to it. Because of the longer class period, this kind of schedule is great for science and electives, and works well for ELA and history; but it is the worst for math and foreign language.

The different class length thing sounds weird--I hope y'all are able to settle into a routine. Settling into a routine will probably take longer than you are used to--even kids who would generally remember your class's rules and procedures will have more trouble remembering them because they don't see you every day. Plan to spend the first part of each period reviewing what you talked about the last class. One other thing to be aware of is that you have to plan in two-day chunks.

On the positive side, having the additional time can be nice. You can give a 1-hour test and still have time either before or after (or give a SPED kid his additional time). You also have the opportunity to completely revamp a lesson overnight should that become necessary. :-) One of the other positives is that you only see certain students every other day (although you see them for a much longer period).

Those are the main ideas that I can think of right now. I hope this helps.

June 26, 2013 at 6:36 PM

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